A 'witch doctor' has reportedly been brought in to assist with the search for the missing plane.

Dozens of naval vessels continue to scour the South China Sea for wreckage from the aircraft.

More to follow.

1:18 am

A self-styled Nigerian prophet, T.B. Joshua, reportedly forewarned in 2013 that a "large aircraft, carrying over 200 people would develop a fault on the tarmac" in "an Asian nation," according to the Christian Post website.

1:23 am

Nigerian 'prophet' TB Joshua forewarns about a tragedy involving a jet plane in an 'Asian country.'

This YouTube video showing his sermon in July last year has gone viral following the disappearance of the Air Malaysia plane.

A self-styled Nigerian prophet, T.B. Joshua, reportedly forewarned in 2013 that a "large aircraft, carrying over 200 people would develop a fault on the tarmac" in "an Asian nation," according to the Christian Post website.

4:49 am

Nigerian 'prophet' TB Joshua forewarns about a tragedy involving a jet plane in an 'Asian country.'

This YouTube video showing his sermon in July last year has gone viral following the disappearance of the Air Malaysia plane.

A new search area for the Malaysia Airlines plane may be opened in the Indian Ocean, the White House said, significantly broadening the potential location of the plane, which disappeared nearly a week ago with 239 people on board.

5:24 am

Expanding the search area to the Indian Ocean would be consistent with the theory that the Boeing 777 may have detoured to the west about an hour after take-off from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing.

5:31 am

"It's my understanding that based on some new information that's not necessarily conclusive - but new information - an additional search area may be opened in the Indian Ocean," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters in Washington.

Carney did not specify the nature of the new information and Malaysian officials were not immediately available to comment.

6:08 am

It's been nearly a week since the Malaysia Airlines plane went missing.

The disappearance is one of the most baffling mysteries in the history of modern aviation. There has been no trace of the plane nor any sign of wreckage despite a search by the navies and military aircraft of more than a dozen countries across Southeast Asia.

Satellites picked up faint electronic pulses from the aircraft after it went missing on Saturday, but the signals gave no information about where the jet was heading and little else about its fate, two sources close to the investigation said on Thursday.

6:31 am

Prayers are still being said for those on board the missing Malaysia Airways flight.

Kuala Lumpur couple Noril Akmar Hamid and Muhammad Razahan Zamani got married in 2012, and were flying to Beijing for a delayed celebration together.

Just weeks before they boarded the flight, Nori had sadly miscarried, but had vowed to try again for a baby when she came back from her holiday, friends said.

Her boss, Ediana said: "She said that when she came back, she would start a new life."

7:38 am

Vietnam says it has downgraded its search for the missing airliner in the South China Sea and has been asked by Malaysian authorities to consider sending planes and ships to the Strait to Malacca.

The statement is a sign that the focus of the search effort is switching to the west of Malaysia, to the strait and further west into the Indian Ocean.

It follows remarks by a US official that the Boeing 777 sent signals to a satellite for four hours after the aircraft went missing early on Saturday. If that is true, then it vastly expands the area where the lost jet might be.

Vietnam search spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Ngoc Son said the status of the hunt has switched from "emergency to regular".

7:49 am

Two communication systems on board the missing plane may have been turned off separately according to reports from ABC News.

The first data reporting system appears to have shut down at 1.07 am (local time) on Saturday morning, 14 minutes before the transponder was turned off at 1.21am, according to reports.

The news organisation cited two officials with one quoted as saying that the U.S. "is convinced that there was manual intervention".